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Nazi Germany had no hope of making an atomic bomb, uranium cubes reveal

137 points · 121 comments · xqcgrek2

  1. Danox · · focus · HN ↗
    Germany’s racism/ethnic/religious hate killed their efforts for the bomb..
    1. unrented7977 · · focus · HN ↗
      As much as I'm sure that gives you the warm fuzzies to think about, it's utter nonsense. That's not how this works.
      1. mrguyorama · · focus · HN ↗
        Hitler explicitly called particle and nuclear physics "Jew science" and disregarded it. For a man who adored mythical wonder weapons that did not pencil out at all, he did not put effort into building nuclear bombs.

        Add to that, most of the physicists at that point in history were very unhappy with Fascism in general, and fled Italy or Germany when they could.

        Many of those who came and helped the US build it's bomb did so reluctantly. Only really Teller seemed genuinely excited about big nuclear bombs. Everyone else wanted anyone but the Nazis to get it.

        However, it's important to note that it's very unlikely anyone else had the resources to actually devote to their equivalent of the Manhattan project, so even though pretty much every state at the time had a nuclear bomb program of some sort, the vast majority were more exploratory than production focused.

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